Daniel Lacroix Autographed Card

Daniel Lacroix had plans, hopes and dreams for his post-hockey career; he was interested in photography, drawing and sculpting. He liked baseball, particularly the Montréal Expos. His favourite movie was Cyrano De Bergerac, starring Gérard Depardieu, and - like most Montrealers born in the 1960s - his favourite player growing up was Guy Lafleur.

His active NHL career went from 1993 until 1998, during which he played 188 regular-season games with five different teams: 30 with the New York Rangers who had drafted him in the second round (31st overall) in 1987, 23 with the Boston Bruins, 130 with the Philadelphia Flyers, 4 with the Edmonton Oilers and his final game with the New York Islanders. He scored 11 goals and had 7 assists for a total of 18 points, with 379 penalty minutes over that span.

Unfortunately, those weren't great teams, so he only appeared in the postseason twice with the mid-1990s Flyers, suiting up for 12 games in 1996-97 and 4 more the following season (with one assist to show for it).

Instead of following his career with artistic endeavours, however, he became an assistant coach, first with the Moncton Wildcats behind Ted Nolan in the LHJMQ, then following Guy Boucher first with the Hamilton Bulldogs, then with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

He joined the Montréal Canadiens in the same capacity for the 2014-15 season, and was given powerplay duties; when that failed, the team traded his tasks with those of Jean-Jacques Daigneault this past summer, and he will handle the penalty kill this year instead.

We'll see how that pans out.

In the meantime, here's a souvenir from his days with the Flyers, sporting their 1980s and 1990s white (then-home) uniform, from Pinnacle's 1996-97 Be A Player set (it's card #135 in the collection), which he signed in fading black sharpie last year, with his jersey number (32) tagged at the end:

I have nothing against the Flyers' current/retro uniforms, but these were also dear to me, having been worn throughout my childhood.